


Stragglers

by NervousAliceCurious



Series: Poisonous Little World [10]
Category: Escape the Night (Web Series), The Mist - Stephen King
Genre: Apocalyptic landscape, F/M, The Mist - Freeform, lost people
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:47:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27292927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NervousAliceCurious/pseuds/NervousAliceCurious
Summary: If you're going to survive, don't leave anyone behind. Even if there's almost no one left to save.
Relationships: Colleen/Erik, Mat/Steph
Series: Poisonous Little World [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1511495
Kudos: 4





	Stragglers

**Author's Note:**

> Cw: Death, implied spiders. Body horror. Hopelessness, suicide/attempt/ideation.

-The world had effectively ended, and the Ballinger-Stocklin mailbox was somehow still standing.

Mat swallowed a lump.

_. . . . . At least we can still do this for you…… _

Stephanie soothed a fussing Ollie.

After the chaos of the getaway, the sudden quiet was. . . . .alarming.

-They turned a corner, and he could see why:

The entire house.

Overrun by spiderwebs-

_ No. _

Through a partially-destroyed wall.

They could see him.

Just barely, sleeping peacefully.

Forever in a cocoon, poor Erik…..

_ I’m so sorry….Colleen- _

He felt the tears welling up again.

-Until he heard something.

“-Did you hear that!?” Stephanie asked-

“I think-”

. . . . . . . . . .They remained quiet.

-There it was again!!

A thin, high cry-

Mat unlocked his door.

“-Be careful-!!” she called after-

He felt his heartbeat climb into his throat.

The condensation was  **_bad-_ **

The bushes at the front had been largely entrenched with broken sticks and leaves.

He strained his ears.

-It was coming from the back.

Skirting the seemingly-deserted perimeter, he watched for descending, wolf-sized forms with too much leg, and disrespectfully large mouths.

-Nothing happened.

Breathing a small prayer to himself, he climbed over a fallen trunk to their shed.

There were shallow depressions in the earth, and hurried footprints.

. . . . The cry came closer.

He was starting to get a bad feeling…….

He removed a wooden plank from the side of the wall.

A broken section.

Flynn’s tear-stained face confirmed it:

If it weren’t for his father leading the beast away, they wouldn’t be having this moment right now.

  
  


“Poor baby. . .”

Stephanie’s eyes were growing wet.

“It could’ve been worse”, he said gravely.

He threw the gear into drive.

“-Where are we going to go?”

Her voice partially broke, and Ollie echoed the sentiment.

Sensing something was  _ horribly  _ wrong-

They couldn’t risk digging out the old car seat in the trunk, so they’d re-purposed his tie to hold the smaller infant close to his chest.

-It’d taken them an additional hour to calm him down.

But the ‘worst’ was over (or so they had to tell themselves)...it was time to  **_escape._ **

“.......Remember when we saw all those cars leaving town?”

“Yes?”

“-I think they knew. If we join them, we might be safe-”

“Are you sure?”

“. . . . What other choice do we have?”

He cracked.

“We have to make our survival  _ mean something  _ or they’ll have died-”

She rubbed his back.

  
  


-So another hour later, they drove off. . . . . .

_ ‘You are now leaving: _

_ the TOWN of EVERLOCK _

_ Hope you enjoyed your stay!!’ _

-

It was a hushed trio who left the neighborhood.

They were a ways behind the Patricks, for certain-

Flipped-over cars littered what little of the road they could see.

Jc winced.

_ So much for  _ **_anyone_ ** _ escaping this nightmare. _

-Not even a school bus.

There was a child, half-obscured by spider webs in the seat.

Teala gasped in horror-

Envy about ran over a curb.

“Sorry-!”

“Poor kid. . .” he breathed…

“-Wait, I think she’s-!??”

She pointed out the windshield, dinging the glass in the process.

“I think her ribs are moving!!”

“-Are they!??”

-The guy moved forward too quick, and bonked his forehead off the low ceiling.

“Ow-”

Jc shifted in his seat, legs aching slightly.

His vision had gone a  _ lot  _ greener in the time since he’d received the vines-

“-Yeah, I’d say so. . . . .”

Faint bones.

“We’ve gotta get out there-!!”

“Hold-your horses-”

He lightly grabbed his arm.

“We need to have a plan”.

“. . . . . .?”

“-I don’t want there to be spiders-!!” Teala cringed.

“I don’t see anything-” the plant guy says.

“That might not guarantee anything”, Jc cautions.

“But-”

“Yeah, I know-”

_ There’s a  _ **_kid._ **

“Are you up to defending yourself?”

-He tests vines.

He grimaces-

“Don’t force-”

“....We can’t just leave them. . . . .”

The three of them were all looking at each other by now.

Conflict-

Conflicted.

_ Save them, or not? _

“-I’m sorry-”

“Wait-”

The unlatching of a door.

“Envy come back-!!”

Teala yelped-

The door slammed shut.

*

-I’m already prepared for them to yell at me the  _ second _ I return.

_ That’s always what’s happened, before. . . . _

I carefully crept up to the abandoned vehicle.

-I had to really-- **wrench** \---

To free up the pane of glass.

I brushed away the webbing-

Bits of blood on the red skirt.

I touched their shoulder-

“Hey. . .”

I’m pretty sure-

“Are you alright?”

Eyelids fluttered.

Coughing-

“. . .??”

“It’s okay”, I reassured, “Remember me?”

“-...”

They rubbed at pink eyes.

“. . . .?”

“It was a couple years ago”.

“Hnh. . . .spider-?”

“No…”

I help them sit up.

They’d be. . .what?

About to be seven…….?

-No, eight.

Well anyway-

“We’re trying to stop this mess”.

-Sort-of…..

“I want my mom-”

“It’s okay”, I repeat.

They wrapped cold arms around me as I lifted them through the gap.

“You’ll see her again”.

I just hoped it was a promise we could keep.

  
  


“The _ heck were you thinking- _ ” Teala let rip-

She saw the child, and closed her mouth.

“Hi sweetie”, Jc waved.

“Hi. . . .”

They hid in my shoulder.

-Since I was usually wrong about….a lot, I was going to wait until they said their name to start using other pronouns.

-It wasn’t going to happen for a while.

“It’s okay….they’re nice people-or I would not be talking to them-”

“Peoples?”

“Yeah”.

-They crawled onto the empty seat.

“-I’m glad I didn’t bring my bear to school”.

“Same”.

I re-locked the door.

-I took a minute to let the nerves fade. . . .

“I bet they’re watching cartoons right now”, Teala said.

“He likes Dora”.

“Cool”.

-This was entirely too precious.

_ Please let their mom be okay- _

_ Please, please….. _

I turned the key in the ignition.

_ Please. _

-

Long, open roads.

No signs of life, anywhere to be seen.

And then they saw it:

A giant,  **_towering_ ** creature.

A man with dark, flowing robes.

Violet eyes like the beams of ominous spotlights in the mist…

Tentacled face reminiscent of the one, the Only Chthullu.

-Except it wasn’t.

The Witches’ rhetoric, Riley’s change-

It floated back to them like a bad memory.

_ …..Is he really going to save everyone? _

  
  


-Ding!

Their gas ran out.

.

  
  


.

  
  


.

  
  


.

  
  


.

  
  


Their car rolled to a stop.

  
  
  


-Because they couldn’t get anywhere else for the night, they stayed where they were.

Ollie and Flynn chatted worriedly in snuffles. . . . . . .

“. . .I’m not gonna lie to you Steph….” Mat started, “It doesn’t look good”.

They kept hearing howls, snaps, and crashes from horizons unseen.

“. . . . .”

She merely nodded.

. . . . His hand…..hovered-

To the Glove Compartment.

Few knew about the gun.

  
  


-She placed her hand over his.

She shook her head.

He gulped-

“Make our survival  _ mean something”. _

“We can’t drive any farther, Steph-”

“Then we’ll walk”.

“But those monsters-”

“If we’re quiet, we’ll make it”.

“Our friends  _ didn’t”. _

“. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .”

They met each others’ eyes.

A thin line between hope. . . .and the most pitiless,  _ crushing  _ despair.

………………….They heard the sound of another car coming.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, we came back-  
> The good news is the next one's the Finale.


End file.
